Question about "Anthro" [Thur, Sept. 13 2012]

So I shared this story I was (thinking about, and) creating, on deviantArt, and there, I got a lot of things like “People aren’t generally interested in anthro” (Mines was about Anthro – Like Wolves), all your writers, is this true? Because I’d like at least some people to be interested in my stories. My friends on DA Seem to like it, I mean I’m still going to write it, but is it true people don’t seem interested in anthro? (Animals with Human traits. Wearing clothes, standing on two legs, etc)

For me, as long as the story draws me in and gets me interested I honestly wouldn’t care about that.

I don’t know about others though. Darren Shan has Wolf Island which was pretty popular although I assume you’re not going for horror judging by your description. (Feel free to correct me.) The only way to really judge if people are interested in it is to post it I suppose.

I can’t speak for others, but a lot of what makes me like “Anthro” characters is not actually the character itself, but the backstory/lore behind them and their culture. I’m no writer, but as a reader, I know what gets me interested, and it’s depth.

One good example are Dragonborn in Dungeons and Dragons — not terribly interesting on their own, but mix it with Eberron (how dragonborn shouldn’t exist within the draconic prophecy, yet are a “lost civilization” that fled Argonesson) or simply emphasize the character through their culture (honorbound, draconic grace, etc) and they become a lot more interesting. Same thing with the Loxodon of Magic the Gathering — elephants. Meh. But mysterious, quiet, not prone to conflict, yet use their size and sheer presence to stop violence before it happens? That’s so cool. I want to know more.

So if you’re just writing the story as if they were humans, but “OH MANANIMALTRAITS~!”, that wouldn’t interest me. That feels like it has nothing to get it off the ground, and it’s simply using an animal for the sake of being different. Mix it with a sizeable amount of culture or history to why the race is the way it is, or why a character stands out apart from other members of its race, and it can be really interesting.

So I shared this story I was (thinking about, and) creating, on deviantArt, and there, I got a lot of things like “People aren’t generally interested in anthro” (Mines was about Anthro – Like Wolves), all your writers, is this true? Because I’d like at least some people to be interested in my stories. My friends on DA Seem to like it, I mean I’m still going to write it, but is it true people don’t seem interested in anthro? (Animals with Human traits. Wearing clothes, standing on two legs, etc)

Hogwash. i know guys on DA, like Inuebony. their art has almost gotten me banned due to my animorphism fetish, though.

I can’t speak for others, but a lot of what makes me like “Anthro” characters is not actually the character itself, but the backstory/lore behind them and their culture. I’m no writer, but as a reader, I know what gets me interested, and it’s depth.

One good example are Dragonborn in Dungeons and Dragons — not terribly interesting on their own, but mix it with Eberron (how dragonborn shouldn’t exist within the draconic prophecy, yet are a “lost civilization” that fled Argonesson) or simply emphasize the character through their culture (honorbound, draconic grace, etc) and they become a lot more interesting. Same thing with the Loxodon of Magic the Gathering — elephants. Meh. But mysterious, quiet, not prone to conflict, yet use their size and sheer presence to stop violence before it happens? That’s so cool. I want to know more.

So if you’re just writing the story as if they were humans, but “OH MANANIMALTRAITS~!”, that wouldn’t interest me. That feels like it has nothing to get it off the ground, and it’s simply using an animal for the sake of being different. Mix it with a sizeable amount of culture or history to why the race is the way it is, or why a character stands out apart from other members of its race, and it can be really interesting.

Okay. I keep forgetting to write the lore about these guys. Ugh. I’ve been working on everything but that, now that I know about it, it’s annoying me . But I’ll try to work on that some time. I mean if you want to see what I have now, http://cody-h.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5fhmh1 . Please note this area is still always being edited, so I do have planned edits to make to it soon. It’s always changing.

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